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The tribe was comprised of several small chiefdoms such as the Ucita, Pohoy, and Mococo, that ranged from today’s Pasco County to Sarasota County. Although these chiefdoms observed the coming of the Spanish explorers Narváez and de Soto, the Spanish never placed missions among them. However, the results of contact were still devastating; a once thriving population was decimated by diseases.
Archaeological evidence shows that the autonomous villages of the Tocobaga shared many features. Typically, each town had a single, large, flat-topped temple mound, from which a ramp extended down toward a plaza. Atop this mound was a wooden, thatched structure adorned with wooden bird carvings; this was the temple, or charnel house, a place to keep the defleshed bones of the dead until burial. At certain intervals, perhaps when the charnel house was full, or perhaps when a significant individual had died, the bones – some wrapped in painted deer hide, were buried in the subfloor of the charnel house. The charnel house was then removed, a new layer of sand was placed over the old burial area, and new charnel house was built.
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